Questions
by Fleeting Vapor
Summary: When Rai doesn't answer his half of the questions to Shinwoo's school assignment, Frankenstein steps in. Noblesse. Complete.


Disclaimer: Noblesse isn't mine.

**Questions**

"Principal Lee!" Shinwoo shouted from the living room, his voice teetering somewhere between a complaint and a plea of desperation. "Come here!"

Frankenstein dropped his book onto his desk. He had expected this call to come. Whenever the children took over his home to actually do schoolwork, sooner or later, one of them would show up at his office door with a question, and he would be lulled into in to their midst. They would huddle around him as he effortlessly explained the answer, and just when their eyes lit with understanding, he would steal a glance at his master, proud to be able to give him moments like this.

But this situation was not like that. When Frankenstein entered the living room, the children were not waiting with wide eyes and looks of expectation. They were not eager to learn something from him. They were not there at all. Only Shinwoo sat cross-legged on the couch with a pencil and a notepad, and one finger pointing mercilessly at Rai.

"Make make this guy do his half of the work!"

Frankenstein forced a smile to hold back his initial burst of anger. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Rai isn't helping!" Shinwoo's hand fell to his lap only to grab the notebook and hold it up for the principal to see. "Everyone else already finished the assignment and went home, but Rai won't answer any of my questions! The only answers I have are the one's I already knew. His favorite food is ramen. He's from overseas."

"That sounds like a rather simple assignment." Frankenstein eased into the seat between the two students. "What are the questions?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"His would be white."

"Rai, is that true?" Shinwoo suspiciously looked between them.

"Yes."

"No way! No one's favorite color is actually white!"

"Shinwoo," Frankenstein calmly refocused him, "the assignment?"

"Uh, yeah." He wrote down the answer and read the next question. "Favorite TV show?"

"We don't watch TV."

"Really?" Shinwoo crossed through that question. "Favorite season?"

"Spring. That's when everything comes to life."

"That's really cheesy."

"What are you doing?" Tao peaked his head into the living room. "What's cheesy?"

"I'm asking questions about Rai, but the principal will only give me lame answers."

"A questions game? Hang on. I want to play." Tao ran down the hallway and reappeared moments later with Takeo and M-21 trailing behind him. "What kind of questions?"

"If you could spend the day with any celebrity, who would it be?" Shinwoo read the next one on his page and looked at Frankenstein expectantly.

"He doesn't consider celebrities to be different from any other person. Anyone would do, but if he had to choose, it would be Suyi since he already knows her.

"Favorite thing to do during free time?"

"Enjoying the people around him, listening to them speak, and watching them interact. It doesn't matter so much what you do just so long as you are together."

"It's my turn." Tao flopped onto the couch next to Shinwoo. "If he had to choose between tea and ramen, which would it be?"

"He wouldn't be able to choose. He would think about it for a very long time and never come up with an answer. Please, don't ask him that." Frankenstein checked his master's cup, but it was full. No need to refill it just yet. "What are you three doing here? This is a school assignment. The students should be asking the questions."

"Yeah?" M-21 smirked as he settled next to Takeo. "Then why are you answering them?"

"It's fine. I can use their questions, too, and I already filled out my answers for Rai." Shinwoo twisted his pencil between his fingers then pointed it at Tao. "Besides, his question was better than mine."

"Very well," Frankenstein relented with a sigh, "what else would you like to know?"

Shinwoo skipped to the next question. "Favorite personality trait?"

"Mercy." Frankenstein frowned. "No, compassion. The way he sees value in everything and everyone? Patience. Humility. Justice. Everything, really. There's nothing I dislike about him."

"Yeah, but it's supposed to be hi-"

Tao slapped his hand over Shinwoo's mouth. "What's your favorite memory together?"

"As many memories as we have?" A smile coated his lips, and he shook his head, gently swaying his hair with the motion. "It would be impossible to name just one, but how life is currently-this is precious to us."

"Do you ever get bored of just sitting around like this?" Takeo leaned forward to see around M-21. The question drew a moment of silence as everyone turned to face Takeo in bewilderment. He shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Like any of you aren't curious."

"I suppose I do from time to time, but I only have to remember what it was like to be separated from him to cherish these moments."

"What was it like being separated?" Tao asked, serious for once.

"It was very difficult when he was," Frankenstein glanced at Shinwoo, "overseas. When you know someone for so long, you grow accustomed to their presence. Their every breath, every motion, becomes familiar as if it is merely an extension of yourself, and you find yourself having no need for words. You can tell without asking when something weighs on their mind, and when you know someone so well… to have that suddenly taken away from you… it is the worst thing I have ever experienced."

"I think I understand… a little." M-21 whispered, forgetting this was only a school assignment. "But you're together now. Was the wait worth it?"

"Yes, I will always wait for him." Frankenstein's smile saddened, and Rai reached out to pat his arm.

"I think I have enough." Shinwoo carefully closed his notebook. "I need to go home to write this. It's due tomorrow. Thanks for helping, Principal Lee."

[-] [-] [-]

Shinwoo carried his report to the front of the classroom and waited for Pedro's nod to begin. "When I started this assignment, it was just a game to me. I thought the topic was kind of stupid. I thought I knew my friends well enough to answer the questions for them, and I didn't need to put much effort into the questions. I got them off the internet. I was going to interview Rai, and this was going to be easy."

"Shinwoo." Pedro muttered under his breath. "You were supposed to come up with original questions."

"But, it wasn't easy. It was really hard, and I ended up interviewing Principal Lee instead. I had thought I could answer all of the questions for Rai, but I couldn't. Principal Lee could. He knew everything about Rai. There wasn't anything he couldn't answer no matter how hard or random the question was, and after talking to him like that, I have to know, is there anything that can stump him? I've never thought anyone could know someone so well. I didn't take this assignment seriously. But now that it's over, I'm going to keep asking questions until I can find one that Principal Lee can't answer. And then, I'm going to make that my goal. I hope that I can know my friends that well."


End file.
